A S C R A P B O O K O F S O L U T I O N S F O R T H E P H O T O G R A P H E R
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16 January 2015
The De Young Museum will open Janet Delaney: South of Market tomorrow, an exhibit of 44 images by the Bay area photographer taken in the 1970s and 1980s as urban renewal swept over the neighborhood.
The exhibition notes, which include a few more of Delaney's images, describe the work:
Her pictures stand as a testament to the vitality of a vanished community of blue-collar workers, small-business owners, families, artists and other denizens of the district. Her luscious color prints transcend the time and place in which they were produced. Collectively, they offer a unique perspective for today's viewers, who may be bearing witness to a new citywide wave of gentrification in San Francisco brought on by the second Internet boom.
We ourselves were among the blue-collar, small business workers of the district, parking our 1958 Plymouth Sport Suburban in the dirt lots left over from the block-wide demolition of older buildings to go to our job at a weekly newsmagazine.
That's our Plymouth loaded up with mail bags late one rainy Wednesday afternoon to take the magazine to Rincon Annex where the bags would be unloaded at the Post Office docks.
The Orange Tree had the best milkshakes, Fox Deli had the best Reubens, Chris's Seafood had the best fish in the neighborhood. Breen's where Blanche held court was our inexpensive hofbrau for dinner, busy Hoffman's Grill the place for lunch.
A city, though, never sleeps. Change rolls through the streets like a newspaper blown by the wind. And the neighborhood known for its sunshine and small businesses was remade with landmarks like Moscone Center and, well, SFMOMA itself.
None of our old haunts survive today. But then, too, we aren't publishing once a week with a trip to the Post Office and knuckles rubbed raw from tossing mail bags on the dock. There are some advantages to the shifting sands of time, too.
On opening day tomorrow, a panel discussion will be held with Janet Delaney and SFMOMA Associate Curator of Photography Erin O'Toole at 2 p.m. Admission is included with general admission to the museum.
'Janet Delaney: South of Market'
Jan. 17 to July 19 at the De Young
SAN FRANCISCO -- The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco are pleased to present Janet Delaney: South of Market, an exhibition that relates the complex history of a changing San Francisco neighborhood through a selection of 45 archival pigment prints from the 1970s and 1980s.
Janet Delaney (b. 1952), an internationally recognized photographer and educator based in Berkeley, photographed the people and places in the South of Market district during a period when redevelopment was threatening to transform it irreversibly. Soon after moving to the neighborhood in 1978, Delaney witnessed the nighttime demolition of a residential hotel from which dozens of poor and elderly residents had been displaced, an event that prompted her to document the economic effects of urban renewal on her social environment.
"Delaney's color photographs don't just document a particular moment in history; they tell a more universal story," said Julian Cox, founding curator of photography and chief administrative curator at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. "Collectively, they offer a unique perspective for today's viewers, who may be bearing witness to a new citywide wave of gentrification in San Francisco brought on by the second Internet boom."
Delaney used a large format camera and color negative film to create a detailed and deliberate photographic document. Her pictures stand as a testament to the vitality of a vanished community of blue-collar workers, small-business owners, families, artists and other denizens of the district.
Organized by Julian Cox and Erin O'Toole, associate curator of photography at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, South of Market includes a variety of street views, building interiors and other portrayals of San Francisco's shifting urban landscape.
For more information please visit: http://deyoungmuseum.org/delaney @deyoungmuseum #southofmarket
Exhibition Organization
This exhibition is organized by the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco in collaboration with the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.
Janet Delaney: South of Market Publication
Hardcover $50/$45 museum members. 128 pages. Published by MACK Books. Purchase at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco Museum Stores or online.
Visiting
Open 9:30 a.m. to 5:15 p.m. Tuesdays to Sundays; open select holidays; closed most Mondays
Admission Tickets
$10 adults; $7 seniors (65 and above); $6 students with current ID; $6 youths 13 to 17. Members and children 12 and under are admitted free. General admission is free the first Tuesday of every month. Tickets available at http://deyoungmuseum.org. Prices subject to change.